As Easy As Breathing
by WickedScribbles
Summary: Kairi is able to wield a Keyblade, and everyone is elated. Everyone except Kairi. The training is brutal, and every day fills her with more doubt that she's actually capable of doing this. She's about to give up entirely when a change in mentors gives her a new perspective. Some plot, some fluff, some eventual romance that will likely lead to a rating change. SoKai.
1. The Croissant of Good Intentions

_Hi guys! Let me briefly set the scene. This takes place BEFORE KH3. Kairi is figuring out how to unlock her powers as a Keybearer on the Islands. Apologies if this doesn't line up with the official Kingdom Hearts timeline. I haven't played every single in-between game. I'm just trying to write some good fluff, people! Hope you like. _

* * *

For someone who had recently been recognized as a worthy Keyblade wielder, Kairi felt like she was failing at every turn. The joy she'd felt at first summoning Destiny's Embrace-actually feeling the weight of the weapon that could help her and her friends turn the tide of this awful war-was such a _reward. _In the beginning it was all celebration and congratulations from her friends. Finally she had gone from the girl who needed saving to someone who could be capable of saving herself. In the beginning, it had been so easy.

Then the celebrating had come to a close and it was time for her to officially begin her training. She'd gone in optimistic-who wouldn't?-and eager to do what she'd seen Sora and Riku doing for years. The sidelines were no longer her place. And the place to start was with baby steps, focusing hard on the Light inside herself to get that Keyblade in her hand.

Training took place on the beach, before the sun kissed the sand with its scorching lips. Kairi got up before the dawn-scarfing down something nutritious and sipping on a piping hot herbal tea that King Mickey had recommended to calm the nerves-as if. Then she slipped into her training clothes (quickly, because she had overslept _again _and her body did _not _like being up at 5 AM even after months of it, damn it) and out the door, to sit on the beach for an hour of meditation.

This was her favorite. The hush of the sleeping world around her (no one else crazy enough to be awake). The inhale and exhale of every ocean wave. The light mist on her skin. She couldn't say that her mind was ever as clear as Mickey or Riku wanted it to be, but it brought the most peace she ever got during training days.

Around 6 AM, she heard the sound of footsteps crunching over sand to where she sat. Unafraid, Kairi corrected her position, back going ramrod straight and her breathing mimicking a perfect rhythm. _I am a perfect student. I am a perfect student. _The steps got nearer and nearer until they halted just inches from her seated pose, and she could hear him breathing. Still she pretended as if she was so deep in her zen that she hadn't sensed her teacher's approach-until he jammed his Keyblade into her shoulder.

"_Riku!" _

"See, Kairi. If your mind was truly clear, you wouldn't have felt a thing," he teased.

It hadn't hurt, but she still shot him a glare as she scrambled to her feet. If she failed meditation, then they would spar. Which she had. So they would. Every day.

Riku looked at her expectantly, and Kairi knew by now that her main point of focus should be summoning her own Keyblade so the fight could commence. If she couldn't within five minutes, then she worked on her evasion tactics while Riku came at her with various blows. Honestly, at this point she would rather go straight to evasion. She could sprint, duck, bob, weave, you name it. The only problem? Riku was just as fast. They could play cat and mouse until the sun sat comfortably at the top of the sky, signalling noon.

"Okay, yeah, got it," she sighed. Breathing deeply, Kairi began to focus on summoning Destiny's Embrace. Lately it had only gotten more difficult. For Masters like Riku, it took only a matter of seconds. For her...sometimes not at all. They'd told her to focus on something that made her happy. Something that gave her hope. To hold that memory close so that bringing forth the Keyblade would soon be as easy as a flick of the wrist.

"Don't overthink the happy thought," Riku had told her at one of their first training sessions. "Usually your first instinct is your best instinct."

Yeah, she knew what made her happy. Or rather, _who._ There were a million, second-long clips playing in her head of him. Sora grinning. Sora laughing. Sora looking at her when he thought she couldn't see, his eyes all soft in a way that made her want to cry or kiss him. Sora looking so much older now, the muscles in his arms and the lightest of peach fuzz on his lip and the scent of him, all ocean and pine and something so _him _that she couldn't give it a name. Sora promising to protect her. The heat of his body both a comfort and and the world's worst frustration.

If she could just hold _that _in her mind, she'd have no trouble. And at first, summoning the Keyblade had been easy. Then as training had gotten progressively difficult, taking a harder toll on her, doubt had crept in.

_The seven of them, standing at the final battle. Her, not being strong enough to help. Not even able to summon the Keyblade. Riku, looking at her with disgust. Someone telling her to get out of the way. To be on the sidelines again so she wouldn't get hurt. Her friends falling all around her. Standing there, completely helpless. Sora, gone. Gone. _

This five minutes was almost always as exhausting as she knew the rest of the day would be. And her time was up.

Expecting the training to go as it normally did, Kairi braced herself for Riku to summon his Keyblade and begin evasive tactics. Instead, he just chewed his lip, not looking at her. Dread swelled deep in her stomach at the breach in routine. This was it. This was the moment he told her that her training as a Keybearer had all been a stupid mistake. A thick silence had fallen, and Kairi prepared for the worst. Only the ocean made a sound.

"How about we get some breakfast?" Riku said at last.

"Uh-?" The noise that came out of her was part confusion, part sob, part relief. He hadn't said, _You aren't cut out for this. _

Riku only trekked up the beach, gesturing for her to follow. With trembling legs, Kairi did her best to keep up.

Kairi understood that Riku liked to keep to himself sometimes. He was the calm, quiet one to Sora's excited chatter. (She liked to think that she was the happy medium.) So she was okay with the silence that persisted as he led her back to his run-down little 'bachelor's pad' not far from where the sand turned to struggling grass. He'd inherited it from his grandfather, and bunked there when he wasn't away on Keyblade Master business. Kairi had only been inside once to see it, but now Riku was holding the torn screen door aside for her and letting her in.

Their dynamic was so different without Sora. Subdued. There were still jokes and things that could be said without having to actually _say _them, but God, it could be _too_ quiet sometimes. Especially now, swinging her legs at his kitchen bar, wondering whether or not 'breakfast' was code for 'I quit, Kairi. You're untrainable.' Kairi adored Riku and hoped that her failures hadn't put a strain on their friendship. A big part of her wished that she had never been chosen for this. That they could all go back to being kids, playing on the beach all day, way before Heartless and the Keyblade War and the evil that was hiding just below the surface of it all.

She was so busy staring dejectedly at the countertop that it startled her when Riku slid a plate into her view. Kairi's eyes widened instantly in delight. A croissant...drizzled with chocolate syrup and a scoop of vanilla ice cream? No. She was dreaming. She'd overslept and was dreaming of what she wanted to have for breakfast. Dessert for breakfast was her favorite guilty pleasure meal, courtesy of her sweet tooth. For her, indulgence could be anything sweet. For Sora, it was _chocolate anything. _Riku was weird and didn't like sweets at all.

Kairi looked from the croissant to Riku and then back again, not sure what to say.

"A peace offering. Go ahead."

Not needing any more prompting, Kairi dug in. Compared to the protein shake and egg she'd gulped down hastily earlier, this was pure _heaven_. Riku stood leaning with his forearms on the counter across from her, watching with an amused look on his face.

"Takes a while to get used to it, right?" he said.

Mouth full of mouthwatering pastry goodness, Kairi just nodded. What did he mean by "it"? The getting up at 5 AM? The excruciating physical exertion, day in, day out? The terrifying expectations that everyone suddenly had for you? The fear that you were letting everyone that you knew down, _permanently? _

"All of it, yeah." Riku could read her mind sometimes. A beat passed where they both said nothing, and Riku let out a heavy sigh. "Guess I owe you an apology."

Good that she had finished her breakfast-dessert, or she may have choked on it in surprise. "Why?"

He blinked back at her like she was crazy. "Well-the way we're training-it's not working. I'm not helping you."

She'd never, not for a moment, thought of her failures as Riku's fault. Or as anyone's fault but her own. Honestly, this was just like him to do; to think that he was to blame when in reality he had nothing to do with her problem. She was just...full of doubt. Fear. Insecurities.

"No! No. I mean, Riku...I just suck at this." Kairi ran a finger through a remaining chocolate drizzle on her plate to try and avoid the stare he was giving her, popping the digit into her mouth. "I find out I can summon a Keyblade and everyone loses it, thinking I can help turn the tide of the war. But I'm not cut out for it." She was trying hard to keep her tone casual, but saying all of it out loud was causing the dam to burst in her chest.

"Kai, don't be like that." Swiftly, Riku had rounded the counter and was standing beside her, looking conflicted. "It's not like any of us got this down in a month. Really." He placed a hand on her arm and thankfully said nothing when tears started to course silently down her cheeks. Almost shyly (it had been so long since they were kids, unafraid of who hugged who and what it could mean), Kairi turned and leaned her face into Riku's shoulder, still sobbing without a sound. He placed his other hand on the top of her head and left it there, sturdy as a cliff face in a storm, ready to wait it out with her.

When she had finally hiccupped herself into some semblance of calm, sunrise was starting to peek in through the kitchen window. Sensing that she was ready to pull herself together, Riku took a step back, taking the dirty plate to the sink.

"Thanks, Riku. I feel a lot better," Kairi sniffed, rubbing her eye. "And... sorry."

He only shook his head, smirking. "You worry _way_ too much. And I might have been too harsh of a teacher."

Kairi began to protest, but he put up a hand to stop her. "No, we both know it was wearing on you. You don't have to say anything to the contrary." She shut her mouth, and Riku chuckled softly. "That's what I thought."

"So...what now?"

The plate clean, Riku placed it facedown on a ragged towel near the sink. His eyes drifted to the strengthening sunrise, lingering on the ocean for so long that Kairi thought that he hadn't heard her question. "Maybe it's time you had someone new to help with your training. I have a great candidate in mind."

He hadn't said a name, but still Kairi's heart skipped with hope-_Sora?_-and damn it if Riku didn't miss a thing. Was she really so easy to read? That trademark wolftooth grin broke out on his face, and she felt her face reddening to compete with her hair.

"See you later, Kai. Take the day off."

So she said goodbye, thanking him again for the croissant and the good cry and the day off. The walk home was spent in an endless cycle of wondering and hoping and hoping and wondering...and more than a little self-indulgent day-dreaming. When she finally made it back to the sweet embrace of bed, she fell into a sleep that smelled like ocean and pine and something indescribable.

* * *

_I like the idea that Riku is a good friend. I like Riku. He's a good guy. He'll microwave you a croissant (c'mon, he did NOT make that croissant) and let you cry on his shoulder. I wanted to explore the dynamic of the trio's friendship more through writing, and felt like Riku and Kairi were a good place to start. Especially since a lot of people ship Riku and Kairi...I just don't see it! They're buds. Let me know what you thought! :) _


	2. The Boy in the Spaceship

"You know, Riku, usually when you tell me not to do something, it means _don't do that, Sora. Something very awful and dangerous will happen when you do." _Sora lowered his voice and scowled in his worst impersonation of Riku, and even though he knew Riku couldn't even see it, he was still cracking up imagining his face. "_Not 'if'. When." _

"Are you making the face? _Tell _me you are not making the face." Riku tried to sound stern over the phone, but Sora knew him too well. He was gonna start laughing any minute, but Sora was two steps ahead, laughing at the dumb impression and at Riku trying not to laugh until it was hard to form a sentence.

"_S-Sora...you have failed me...h-how dare-" _

And then they both lost it.

That was the thing with Riku. He liked to act tough and mysterious with everyone else, but Sora knew how to soften him. Sometimes, Riku _really _just needed to relax. There was no use always being so tightly wound when you lived in a tropical paradise. There _were _dozens of things to worry about-he wasn't an idiot-but Sora didn't see any sense in walking around like a cloud full of rain all the time, moping. Heck, the scary, pressing matter of what lay ahead of them was all the more reason to have as much fun as possible while they could.

Which was why Sora had _definitely _turned that ship around at the mere suggestion of being able to hang out with Kairi on the Islands all day, every day. (Er, _training her in the ways of the Keyblade, _he meant.) Right now he was supposed to be travelling across worlds, informing them of the coming war and how they should prepare in case of a disastrous event. And he'd done that! He'd just finished this last belt of worlds in an especially speedy manner. No one could accuse him of leaving people uninformed, no sir. A bit flummoxed by the velocity at which he'd come and gone? ...Maybe.

It didn't matter now. He was talking to Riku for the first time in weeks, the ship was on a set course for his home, and soon he'd be looking at her again. Which was a dumb way to put it. Technically Sora could look at Kairi any time he wanted, but-to see her _looking back_-eyes darting down shyly and then back up, one half of her mouth smiling and then the other. Getting to hug her. Going to all of their old hangouts with her. And maybe, _finally_, getting to do all the things that he'd wanted to do for months or maybe longer with her, had life not slammed its doors in their faces.

Riku would tease him, and it wasn't the kind of thing you could really tell Donald or Goofy or the King about either. At least, he didn't think so. Sora wanted...to pay for her ice cream at their favorite stand. To make sure she never worried about whether or not she'd be safe again. He wanted to see Kairi in his hoodie, and do all that other dumb, stereotyped boyfriend garbage that every other guy seemed to get to do but him. For once, he kind of wanted to just _not _think about the impending doom of the worlds. And that was exactly what he intended to do this summer with Kairi.

If he knew Kairi as well as he thought, then she was biting her nails over not being able to summon her Keyblade. She'd keep her mouth shut for the most part, but something must have happened this morning to get her stressed enough to have a breakdown over it. Riku was too tightly wound, Sora was accused of not worrying enough, but Kairi was right there in that panic sweet spot. Guess he's find out just how bad the damage to her Keyblade psyche was when he landed.

Fun fact: Sora had never driven a car, but an interdimensional spacecraft was a breeze. Frankly, cars scared him a little. In some worlds, there were just so _many _of them jammed on a road at once time. The sky wasn't like that. Sure, there was an occasional heated space battle with beings comprised of pure darkness every once and awhile, but at least while moving through space one had a full 360 degree range of motion. Cars were ruled by gravity, cramped, and definitely did not possess a hyperdrive (one of the biggest disappointments of Sora's last trip home). Thus, zero appeal and null on the cool factor.

For example, when you parked a car on the beachside, no one blinked an eye. When you parked your spacecraft, you might just end up on the news. That is, if you forget to activate the ship's cloaking device. Which Sora did. Now and often. _Crap crap crap. _He could already hear Donald squawking about keeping the natural order of the world intact, and how many times had he screwed it up to date? If word got back to him, Donald would hand him a ten-page double-spaced lecture on his wrongdoings, then read it over the speaker of the Gummi ship the next time they had a mission together. (Goofy would defend him in a halfhearted, well-meaning way, but when Donald was in a fury nothing could really be done.)

The glare of the summer heat had kept most people from gathering at the beach this time of day. They usually waited until a little closer to dusk, and then party crews would really start showing up. Lucky for him. For now, the only two people on the beach in the full heat of afternoon were a little old woman wearing naught but her wrinkles and a _rather _skimpy bathing piece… aaaand Riku. _Shoot. _Sora almost wished that there had been five more clueless witnesses than Riku watching him screw up this massively as soon as he landed.

Sheepishly, Sora jabbed the correct sequence of buttons for the ship's cloaking device and made his way down the ramp, ready to be ridiculed. But first-

"Young man, did you see that? Did you see what just happened?!" the old woman was jogging towards him, her flip-flops kicking up sand and her attributes, well, _obeying the laws of physics. _Yikes.

"See what, ma'am?" Sora asked innocently, bending down to retrieve the flip-flop that the woman had lost in her hurry to get over and spread the word.

"Oh, thank you." Absentmindedly, the woman gripped her shoe in both hands and continued, "The spaceship. Landed right here on the beach! We're doomed, young man. Someone has to run back into town and-"

A hand clapped on Sora's shoulder suddenly, making him jump more than he would've liked, considering this was one of Riku's favorite ways of messing with him. "Sora, don't you think you're taking a little too long?" Riku murmured.

Sora rolled his eyes, unbeknownst to Riku. "Jeez, I was just being polite."

Placing his open hand inches from the startled woman's face, Sora whispered, "_Conjura mystica." _Within a few tense seconds, she was shaking her head and looking around.

"Have we... met?" she asked him suspiciously.

"Well, sort of, ma'am. You dropped your shoe, and I just handed it back." Sora gave her a Patented Virtuous Smile.

"O-oh. Well, thank you." Looking from her shoe to her bare foot with some embarrassment, the old woman gave a small nod and hobbled down the beach, leaving Sora and Riku to themselves.

"Golden boy." Riku punched his shoulder.

"I was upholding the world order, Your Sulkitude."

"By landing your big-ass spacecraft right on the beach!"

"They don't have parking big enough, Riku!"

"Aaah!"

"_Aaah!_" Laughing at this point, Sora kicked a wave in Riku's general direction.

Often their teasing spiralled into arguments that spiralled back into teasing. Sora was relieved that no squabbles between them ever lasted long-and the rift between them that had happened years ago had been completely sealed over, like a wound closing itself back up. Riku was his old self, maybe even better. Sora wouldn't have had it any other way.

"So where's Kairi?"

Out of habit, they both moved to find shade; Destiny Island's summers were no joke. Riku shrugged. "Gave her the rest of today off. Not sure." His tone wasn't quite laid-back enough to pass for nonchalant.

Sora nodded, busy wrestling out of his hoodie. "You never said on the phone-what made her finally freak out on training? I thought she was doing so well at first."

Riku didn't say anything-and this was the kind of thing that drove Sora crazy. His long moody pauses that made his brain struggle to hang on to what they were even talking about. He was quiet for so long, in fact, that Sora had honed all his attention on getting a tiny sand crab to crawl onto the end of his Keyblade.

"I dunno. I think it got to be too much for her."

Sora jumped, and the crab scuttled away before he had a chance to grab it. "You think _what_ got to be too much?"

Honestly, Sora loved being a Keybearer. He didn't love this war, or the Organization, or the Heartless. But he loved that they had made him strong enough to defend the people who mattered to him. Sora loved getting to travel to new worlds, to meet people he never would have met otherwise. Everyone was always telling him to be careful. That they worried. But he knew that whatever he, Donald, and Goofy got into, they would make it out okay. They had the power of light on their side, and they were constantly prevailing. But now he was afraid that Kairi saw it another way.

"I may have gotten a little intense with her. And realized too late that maybe it wasn't what she needed."

Some deep, unrecognized part of Sora flared up at the words _got intense with her_ before realizing how stupid he was being for taking it out of context. Sora pretended to find interest drawing shapes in the sand while he waited for his face to cool down. "So by _intense _you mean ten hour training sessions that start before sunrise, am I right?"

"Maybe."

"_Riku_," Sora chastised. "You used your scary military training on Kairi? On you, I get it. You're a hardened, _dangerous _Keyblade warrior. Kairi is a little lion cub who sleeps too late. I mean, she's fierce, but she just needs a different kind of incentive, you know?"

Now it was Riku's turn to roll his eyes, but he was smiling. "And what kind of incentive did _you_ plan to give her?"

Sora's brain couldn't work fast enough to think up a witty response to that, but this time his blush was unmistakable. "I-Riku-that's not-!"

Getting to his feet, Riku snorted at Sora's attempt to regain some semblance of dignity. "Just telling you now, Sora. You actually _do_ have to teach Kairi to wield a Keyblade this summer."

Sora rose to his feet as well, kicking sand everywhere in his haste. "Of course I will! I'm taking this seriously."

"I believe you. Besides, you already know the stakes if you don't."

And with that, they said goodbye and went their separate ways. As Sora watched Riku take the familiar path back to the line of beach houses, a single panicked thought popped into his head: _he didn't really have a plan. _He'd never taught anyone how to use a Keyblade before. Sora couldn't even remember a time when he hadn't had the Keyblade at his side anymore. _Heck. _There was a very small chance that this was going to be far difficult than he thought.

Well, there was no point in getting worked up about it on day one. Time to tell Kairi he was here. Sora's feet pointed him to her almost as if he had never left this world, almost as if there were no others paths to walk at all. _Be there soon, Kai._

* * *

_And now one from Sora! Aw man, I just love Sora to bits. I tried to portray him as best I could. I feel like this boy has some serious ADHD. 10/10, would hug. _


End file.
